Message to Ventura residents: Prepare for the next disaster

On the night the Thomas Fire broke out, 14 Ventura police officers and 21 city firefighters were on duty. Although off-duty and out-of-town emergency responders quickly heeded the calls for help, the ratio remained significantly out of balance, a fact that isn’t going to change.

As much as possible, preparing for the next emergency is critical to help minimize damage and protect yourself, family and neighbors.

That message was driven home Wednesday night by city Assistant Fire Chief Matt Brock and other officials who attended the Westside Community Council meeting.

“You can’t rely on first responders to do everything for everyone,” Brock said.

The meeting focused on the Thomas Fire — what happened, what officials are working on and what residents can do to help prepare for the next expected problem of landslides and debris flow once the rains come. More than 100 people attended the information session, put on by the neighborhood group that represents people who live, work and own property along and off Ventura Avenue.

The fire started outside Santa Paula about 6:30 p.m. Dec. 4 and raced to Ventura, where it destroyed more than 520 residences.

There were no homes lost in the city’s west side, although many people had problems evacuating as roads filled with thousands of evacuees. Some said it took up to two hours to get out of the neighborhood.

“That is something we’re going to look into,” Ventura City Council member Matt LaVere said, adding that similar gridlock occurred in the Ondulando and other hillside neighborhoods.

 “This was the worst fire in our city’s history,” he said.  

Read more:911 calls for help kept coming as the Thomas Fire raged

Ventura is in the process of updating its evacuation plan, and city and county officials are taking steps to minimize problems that are nearly certain to result from landslides and fire debris flows.

City Public Works Director Tully Clifford said letters started going out last week to residences expected to be hit hardest by when the rains come, possibly bringing mud and debris flows in addition to the potentially damaging water itself. Those vulnerable homes include ones in the northeast hillside areas where most of the houses burned.

The hillside area along Ventura Avenue experienced more of a surface burn, but that doesn’t mean officials aren’t concerned about potential and expected activity there, Clifford said.

Brock said officials are working behind the scenes on the situation every day. The city developed plans last year in anticipation of El Niño and, based on what was learned from the Thomas Fire, officials are in the process of updating it, Clifford said.

But many who live on the hillside are limited in what they can do to protect themselves because the land is privately owned. That means the city and county can’t take measures, either, something that didn’t sit well with residents.  

The land above much of the Avenue is owned by the Selby Corp., a property management company with an office off Ventura Avenue. The land is in an unincorporated area, but homeowners are in city limits. Residents have been trying for years to get all the parties together to minimize the landslide risk. They haven’t gotten far.

In 2005, after the deadly La Conchita landslides, the city sent a letter to residents on several streets near the hillside. 

“City engineers have inspected the hillside and have determined that mudslides will continue to occur from this location and potentially other adjacent hillside areas,” it said in part. 

Clifford said the city hasn’t done any truly in-depth studies and can’t because the hillside is on private land. So the city is assuming a worst-case scenario, he said.

Several residents said the city and county should be more proactive about the situation.

Read more:Ventura residents worried about hillside have few options for help

“I can’t accept because it’s complex we won’t solve it,” said Janette Daniel-Whitney, a westside resident and the Westside Community Council’s communications chair.

Many residents also expressed concern about the emergency notification system. Police Chief Ken Corney said agencies used VC Alert, wireless emergency alerts and activated the emergency alert system on television and radio stations. But all of that was useless to some, who said they lost both cellphone service and power shortly after the fire started.

“It is not a perfect system,” Corney said. “Technology is always going to be a challenge.”

Residents asked whether a siren system, which used to be in place, would be effective. Officials didn’t rule it out, but Brock noted the previous one put in place by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers didn’t work particularly well. 

But there is an effort to ensure more people have access to emergency notifications in the future, officials said.

“You have to opt out for telemarketers. You have to opt in for emergency alerts,” Corney said.

That makes no sense, LaVere said. He said he was working with state elected officials to get that situation reversed, meaning people would have to opt out of, rather than opt in to, emergency alerts, LaVere said. He also said they were working at the state level to ensure alerts go out in other languages.

Read more:Warnings for Spanish speakers fall short in fire, advocates say

Ultimately, though, residents have a responsibilityto do as much as they can. 

Brock said if residents took away three things from the meeting, they would be: sign up at readyventuracounty.org, talk to neighbors to collectively determine the best plan and share resources, and ensure they have an emergency plan in place long before the next disaster hits. 

“You can’t rely on first responders to do everything for everyone,” Brock said.